| I barely recall the revisal, other than Salonga, who worked hard. I grew up in love with the score, and wanted desperately to love what Hwang did with the material. I don't think it all quite landed -- too many adjustments to a recipe with era-specific character problems baked in, as it were (attached to songs that couldn't be shoehorned as easily as one hoped). But it was a very solid attempt to find a way to make a moving immigrant narrative work. I remember trying to get people to go and judge for themselves. I saw a fairly late preview and the audience was cruel at intermission, wanting "their old FLOWER DRUM SONG back." Of course, that was a western, white audience who wanted it restored. |
